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No one can see anything about you except that which you place into your profile or within posts you make.
You have probably seen this person is banned before the post was removed but after a moderator had banned the spammer.

Spam is, unfortunately, a fact of life on forums, the moderators and admins are very quick to remove this and ban users who do spam however.

Also, it's worth pointing out that notifications are automatically sent out when the "reply" is posted, and such emails can not be removed once sent. These spam messages are carefully written to sound as though they know all about you, but where is the profit in tailoring messages in a one by one basis? They're sent out in their millions.

As Tim said, nobody can see your personal details (not even the Mods) just what you have put into your public profile.
Mods move as soon as they become aware of such things - by the time that I saw the alert (over breakfast), one of the others had dealt with it.

The Following User Says Thank You to Lesley Robertson For This Useful Post:

Thank you both for replying and dealing with this. It rattled me that they seemed to have knowledge of my birth date. Thanks for explaining how these situations are dealt with, and for the really prompt response, it gives me confidence in your management of the forum

I don't think anyone suggested lying - and obviously I haven't seen any of the messages in question so I don't know whether they just said "middle aged" or had an exact birth date, as was originally implied.

But is it possible that someone could get access to the server/database without the knowledge of the mods/admin, and using tools and techniques that the mods/admin are unaware of or unprepared for? Isn't that how hacking works?

The last thing I'd do is to accuse Mods and especially Super Mods of telling porkies. Nevertheless charliespark said quite specifically that the spammer knew his or her date of birth i.e. not just a sweeping age generalisation. I haven't seen the spam but I think that my question was relevant if the facts are as posted. If something like "middle-aged" was the spammer's assumption that of course changes things somewhat although as you said above "spammers send out millions" and in which case it might also suggest more specific attention to charliespark by a spammer. Spammers don't send out millions of spams just to "middle aged" people - they are less discerning than that.

I regard genealogy forums as fairly low risk activities because even if they are hacked there's not much on there of mine that would worry me, unlike my bank account. However, governments, banks, the NHS and other companies are regularly hacked these days so it as well not to be complacent.

It is also worth bearing in mind that one doesn't have to be a poster or member of a forum to read what a member may have posted sometimes years ago. Google will unearth anything if you use the right search terms as no doubt many of us have found. Not the same as being hacked I know but just another example of the caution we all should use online.

Tony

"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke